By Alan Jones, 18th November 2019
The ABC were at it again last week, fawning over 23 former fire and emergency leaders who commented, outside their area of expertise, about an alleged relationship between bushfires and climate change.
It is worth asking how the non-expert views of such people are even newsworthy.
But the propaganda in relation to climate change, from the classroom to the university to politicians and to most of the media, has to give cause for concern.
As The Australian newspaper editorialised at the weekend, “It is time for a dose of icy water. Climate change did not cause the fires.
Drought and even deadlier blazes have been part of Australian life for more than a century … even if Australians eliminated all of the nation’s greenhouse gases, about 1.3 per cent of the global total, and pandered to extremists who want meat consumption, grazing and flying reduced markedly, nothing, virtually nothing, would be achieved …”
Well, let’s deal first with the “deadlier” blazes.
Dramatic language has been used to suggest that the devastation of last week is “unprecedented”, “apocalyptic”, “catastrophic”, and the result of the “worst bushfire conditions ever”.
So what is to be made of the Black Saturday fire in Victoria in 2009 which burned 450,000 hectares of land, killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2000 homes? Or the Ash Wednesday fire in Victoria and South Australia in 1983, which burned 520,000 hectares, destroyed 2400 homes and killed 75 people? Or the Tasmanian Black Tuesday fires in 1967, which burned more than 260,000 hectares, destroyed something like 1400 homes and killed 62 people? Or, back in 1939, the Black Friday fire, which burned almost two million hectares, destroyed more than 700 homes and resulted in 71 fatalities?
“worst bushfire conditions ever” – Picture: AAP/Jeremy Piper
Adding Fuel to the Fire
No one is denying the gravity of what people and firefighters have been through now, but it is no use gilding the lily here.
You can’t have a fire without fuel.
Two factors above all else come into play here.
In NSW, when Bob Carr was the minister, and later premier, he ratified moves to have fire trails abandoned.
Carr’s moves prevented access to those fire trails by the Rural Fire Service, under the pretext he was keeping four 4WDs and campers out.
The government (and how many problems that we face today are created by government?) put locked gates on these national parks and planted big rocks at the entry to the fire trails.
Understandably, the fire trails are now overgrown with regrowth forest, impenetrable to everybody except native and feral animals.
Yet it was these fire trails that enabled the fire fighters to get to the heart of a fire.
They could then create back burning and land clearing.
Fire fighters could mobilise earth-moving equipment and successfully put the fire out.
In those days, water bombing wasn’t in vogue.
It wasn’t necessary and, anyway, it was too expensive. The fire trails were “fit for purpose”.
Today, the fire fighters know they are hopelessly limited by where they can gain access to the fires. They have to rely on very expensive water bombing strategies.
The greenies, of course, endorse this strategy.
Except that they, disturbingly, prefer the use of freshwater, which we don’t have, over salt water in putting out bushfires.
And that is allegedly to “protect” the environment.
As one of my listeners said: “This sounds like fiction but it is not. What is all this ‘protect the environment’ hypocrisy? When have we seen any Greens MP, Zali Steggall, Adam Bandt, Sarah Hanson-Young and their leader, Richard Di Natale, line up alongside Tony Abbott to fight the fires?”
Then-senator John Williams said in 2013, “The problem in our national parks is that we have these savage fires with huge amounts of fuel per hectare; we are killing the trees, we’re killing the animals, we’re killing the koalas and anything else that lives in these areas and we call it conservation …”
You and I would call it destruction.
I repeat, you cannot have a fire without fuel.
Re-Learn to Burn
When you think there are seven million hectares of national parks in NSW alone, 200 of them in Sydney, and yet hazard reduction burns have occurred on less than 1 per cent of fire-prone land, then we are staring at a potential inferno.
This has nothing to do with climate change.
Dr Paul Read, co-director of Australia’s National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson, puts the number of bushfires in Australia per year at, on average, “62,000 and increasing”.
Of those, 13 per cent are started deliberately and 37 per cent are suspicious. That means 31,000 Australian bushfires are either the product of arson or suspected arson, every year. That means that up to 85 bushfires begin every day because someone leaves their home and decides to start one.
Thousands of men and women are risking their lives fighting fires and many have been deliberately lit.
The guts of the problem is again government.
Local governments are being blamed for all of this, but they have no power to even lift a fallen tree or remove a broken branch.
If they want to back-burn or reduce the fuel on the forest floor, they must get permission from state government and jump through endless hoops.
That is, if local government want to reduce the fire hazard.
Indigenous Australians knew how to deal with fire. We have learnt nothing from them. The problem is simple. There is too much fuel on the floor and we cannot get at it.
Arguing that we need more water bombers, and we will have to buy them from overseas, is attacking the symptom, not the disease.
Bureaucratic Undergrowth
The current strategies have us facing potentially appalling consequences and have nothing to do with protecting the environment.
We need an independent body, removed from all government, with a simple brief to secure hazard reduction.
I saw a pathetic defence of government policy last week when Environment Minister Matt Kean said the government had exceeded its own “five-year rolling target for hazard reduction”.
And “that target says that over five years, on average, we will do hazard reduction of 135,000 hectares”.
National parks in New South Wales cover more than seven million hectares so at the rate of 135,000 hectares a year, you are looking at more than 51 years to complete the hazard reduction in all of them. That is somewhere south of useless.
With all the odds against them, massive build-up of fuel on the floor, dry weather, frightening winds, arsonists and governments pandering to the Greens, our fire services and volunteers are veritable heroes and should be recognised as such.
And so are the employers who fund the volunteers while they do their work.
In the midst of all of this, it is easy to forget the good stories.
One concerns Paul Sefsky, near Urunga on the mid-north coast.
He expected to lose his home. He fled when the evacuation order came through. Firefighters managed to save his home. When he returned home, he found a handwritten note from the firefighters who had saved it. It said: “It was a pleasure to save your house. Sorry that we could not save your sheds. PS. We owe you some milk.”
This is moving and inspirational. We owe such firefighters better management of the risk than is currently the case.
Listen to the Alan Jones Breakfast Program on 2GB weekdays from 5.30am to 9am.
How true. Currently we have not only the worst but also the most criminally liable Governments in Australias history.
Nothing has changed sice 1969 when I lived in Nth Springwood in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. During these fires which raged we lost 44- homes burned to the ground, nearly 340 of them lost in a chaotic 1 day period when the fire jumped our position, at the ‘blowhole’, plus the highway, plus the railway, and landed 50 metres past our captain on the other side and took off down Safafras Gully, travelling 17 miles in just under 2 hours. We were asked for our recommendations, so this type of fire could never happen again, we gave them total details. A Deputy Captain of the Nth Springwood VFS – Mr Phil Koperberg became the Chief Fire Officer, and still NOTHING was done by Politicians to practically legislate to reduce risks! My crew lost count of the number of times we put our truck and ourselves between the fire and homes, the number of times our truck was surrounded by fire and we nearly didn’t make it out. We fought fires for 31/2 weeks straight, we supplied all our own equipment in those days, and yet, politicians could not make strategic decisions, which could and would have saved homes and lives, in future years. Fires are NOT CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, they are caused by lack of GUTS to make the CORRECT DECISIONS to reduce fuel load on the floor of the forests. The eucalypt leafs are highly imflamable, so match forest floor excess product, with high winds and you have the perfect equation for 120ft walls of flame, moving very fast, jumping 200-300 metres through the canopie.
I am 74years of age, I was a young, married man with 2 children under 2 years when those fires hit and I have never forgotten images of out of control fire and just our tanker and 7-8 guys trying to keep the heat and flames away from homes in our area.
Every politician and green tree hugger should be forced to spend active time as a volunteer fire fighter, because they don’t understand a single thing about the subject which they pontificate so eloqunetly about!
I agree 100%. No human being can do ANYTHING about the climate , NATURE has control of the climate as it has for billions of year’s and will continue to keep alternating between hot and cold for the next few billion years.
I fully agree, you cannot have a fire without fuel. Our communities and RFS need to be empowered to “Re-Learn to Burn”.
Seriously how do we the people sack the government, the greens should be locked up for everyone’s benefit.
Stop sending money overseas, pull out of the UN. Stop the fracking in this country that will protect our water.
And for god’s sake can we get some leader that’s not corrupt , to much greed running this country.
It’s been a disaster going to happen for many years. Locked up National parks,farmers can’t clear , huge fuel loads through no burning in winter,but worst blocking fire trails where fire fighters had a chance to stop a fire in its early stages.
All the climate change balony is being trotted out to divert attention from the real failure of government to “manage” all the land they have stolen from Australians. All this productive land stolen so that bureaucrats can travel to COP conferences and swan around. – biggest government corruption scandal in Australia by far. The high court has already ruled, on these type of land seizures. They can be fought.
Thank you, Alan Jones, for writing common sense, and stating what ordinary folk are thinking, but lack by and large both your eloquence and audience to articulate.
I would add that there is little grass in paddocks, so largely the fires are not grass fires, they are occurring in timber, which officials are loathe to let farmers cut, even when it is just woody weed.
Or else it is occurring in Parks, where, despite the previous catastrophe’s inadequate burning off still occurs.
And don’t forget Mother Nature lightening strikes. I grew up on a farm every year we would burn off in the winter generally when it was a still no wind day. We called our own shots. We never ever had any problems. The bush floor was clean, and a abundance of nature wildlife. Only other properties that where not maintained had problems. It use to anger my dad if he saw a property with overgrowth and rubbish everywhere, he would say to me” classic example of a bushfire “ don’t get me started the greens are surely responsible for all this. We would not be in this situation if the fire trails where clear and overgrowth was managed yearly in the national parks
I’m a Lismore City Councillor and farmer, I spent four years on the area bushfire committee, like you I’m over what I can only describe as stupidity surrounding the management of rural areas in relation to bushfire. I would be prepared to put a motion to Council condemning the NSW Government’s failure to manage rural NSW in relation to the bushfire danger. If this occurred across regional NSW Councils then just maybe these people might listen to reason and change their destructive policies.
Alan a great story and so true. I’m over this climate change bullshit, it is non existent. Our firies have been really let down by government’s state and federal for not allowing back burning and closing off the national parks, it certainly hasn’t stopped the arsonists just hindered the firies, now 2 dead and many in hospital, how many we probably won’t find out. These firies are exhausted and this is when accidents start to happen sadly they need more international help from all those countries we throw the cheque book at, not just the few groups from NZ, USA and Canada. We thank these guys immensely for their help but I have read posts where firies would come in a heartbeat but are being stopped because of lack of funds, why doesn’t the government step in and bring these firies out because ours can’t keep going. Thank you Alan for your good work.
Very interesting reading I suspect the problem is money, all these things cost, keeping fire trails clear , conducting hazard Reduction Burns (not back burns) etc. If you look at the cost of trying to control these fires so far this year and spent this money on preventative measures I am sure we would be in front.
It is the state governments responsibility for their own states, but fires do not respect boundries and the states share resources in times of need. So I think it is something the federal government should be financing.
The views of many fire chiefs are of no worth yet the views of an ex-teacher of English and current radio presenter are gospel truths? How did so much expertise get to reside in one man?
I believe there is an agenda..
I agree with this article but would like to add that now, with the huge fuel load in areas that will be subject to controlled burns, which themselves can become hit fires, we need a three pronged attack.
We need to thin, graze and then burn these areas. Not politically correct but the only practical solution.
The greens are a pack of morons they put a stop to everything that is good for our Country.Our resources our underground but we are unable to extract.next we we run out of gas , it’s there but we can’t get it cause the greens won’t allow us to fracture.Fires same can’t illiminate the dangers as in causes back burning is areas is voodoo not touch U may kill a tree.FFS wot does a bunch fire do you idiots
so the 23 ex fire chiefs are ”unqualified” or not experts in the field of fire fighting ?
Black Saturday fires .7th February / Ash Wednesday fires started 16 February /Black Tuesday fire started 7th February / Black Saturday fires of 1937/8 peaking in January 1938 . none of these catastrophic fires began in October or early November.
Current government regulations and policies control when back burning is permitted and i have no idea when the ”Greenies’ were in power to implement the regulations stated in this article , the current government has the power to remove rocks and re open fire trails but would rather rip down stadiums and rebuild them in Sydney and blame Labor and Greens for anything that goes wrong in the state / country . as does the so called current media . yes we do live in dangerous times .
Yes!! Go get ’em guys. Go in swinging, the bloody rot has to stop.
Alan;well said,you have vividly pointed out the truth;shewing the evil Greens[woke,socialist extinction rebellion filth]their face to the Australien people.Australia thanks you Alan for exposing this madness and alerting us to the often mindedness idiosy of people in charge of Beautiful Australia.
After working over 35 years in the bush (timber industry), I couldn’t agree more in the written article. Governments, in power, or Opposition, or fence sitters, should be ashamed of themselves, and be called to answer.
Let’s stop pointing fingers and work together on strategies to prevent these fires happening again. Talk to the people on the ground, they at least have a clue as to what happens! Fuel reduction is imperative!
I grew up in the bush on a dairy farm and as a boy I remember the local CFA every year would come along and control burn from our boundary fence back out to the road this made a great fire break if in the event a bush fire did happen. They did this in sections so the wild life had the opportunity escape. Worked perfectly we were never in fear of a major bush fire. Move over you greens and give back the power to the local farmers and local CFA to manage there own area.
l agree the Volunteers are heroes and the Greens are at fault!!!
The intensity of the bushfires we are experiencing can be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of successive State and Federal governments! They have permitted, nay encouraged, our national forests to become storehouses of underbrush and dead timber………holocausts just awaiting that errant lighting strike or deliberate action by an idiot! In the midst of a drought we are not permitting the use of salt water to help douse the fires…….salt was used for years to de-ice our roads….the land recovered as it always does. I could go on and on about government ineptitude and pandering to non scientific squawking from the ‘green’ contingent……how many of them belong to our rural fire brigades? How many of them actually understand our ‘brown’ land to the extent that our rural Aborigines do? Future generations will not forget today’s politicians and will do so for all the wrong reasons……Shame on you all!!,!
how true its back on the greeies never let this happen ever again, new lessons have learned this should never happen again our RFS do the best job that our local government will let them do , this should never be the case our local government must let our RFS people do the work needed to prevent this horrific fire storm and with the RFS doing the work that is needed they are a very profesional crowd they know what needs to be done
2GB & Affiliated radio stations are full of right wing shock jocks. Jones. Hadley etc. Remind me again where the Greens are in power in any Commonwealth, State, Local government seats !!! Apart from some inner city seats , where their power is minimal. 11,000 independent scientists cannot all be wrong re climate change.
This needs amending right now , tear up the current laws and go back to what we all use to see in forests , trails , but I don’t think it will happen , common sense will be stifled by political mateships ( votes )
Being a former QFRS Senior Officer (Inspector Urban/Rural) and still a RFS volunteer I am in a position to attest to bushfire control to be firmly in the affirmative for structured hazard reduction operations.
Programed patchwork fuel reduction burns are proven activities to both reduce heavy vegetation fuel loadings and preserve wildlife.
Aboriginal cool burns were conducted around water sources to encourage wildlife to attend and eat fresh vegetation following rain and heavy dew.
Only fair dinkum burning activities will alleviate future threats from bushfire.
climate change is a fact, why a news reporter is acting like he carries the sway of facts is a joke.
Well written and so true.
OMG! This post is ? correct ❗️
Why can’t people see this❓?
Whilst not the Australian way, if all of those courageous volunteer fire fighters walked away and refused to put their lives at risk the politicians and nanny brigade would have to rethink, and perhaps, just perhaps not be so blinded by their own ego.
Perhaps we even need to look at whether the government policies are developed in order to facilitate the Agenda 20 (now 30 ) policy of depopulation and centralised planning. Draining rivers for large scale agriculture in desert areas and underground artesian water basins and allowing fracking everywhere so that all available water is used by extraction industries rather than being reserved for farming is a strategy of such insanity that it has to be part of someone’s deliberate agenda. With no water nothing survives . Allowing our land to be regularly sprayed with aluminium, barium and strontium filled chemtrails can only be explained in terms of a deliberate policy to destroy. The chemtrails chemicals are fire accelerants. Why do we allow that to happen? Ignorant on the part of the majority. Deliberate destruction by the few. We can’t rely on the politicians to fix the problem. They’re causing the problem. Attributing the blame for climate extremes on CO2 levels means that all our attention and energy is focused on something we cannot realistically change and takes focus away from things that will make a difference such as water retention schemes, backburning, maintaining fire trails and restoring bush land and planting trees.
This whole page is full of misinformation. Fair dinkum people.
Well said Greg, let’s make that happen. The Shires Association / Local Government NSW has expressed concerns on the management of our Rural Fire Service in the past. Perhaps now is a good time to revisit. We got more burning done before the State took over.
When whites first settled in Sydney, much of it was clear open spaces because the indigenous peoples carried out burns. Wherever needed the original land holders burned sections of the bush. Add to this the mountain folk of the Snowies learned from the First Nations people where the tracks up the mountains and across the mountains were and with it water holes, springs, rivers. They too had the wise habit of regular burning of some areas. This was done without total destruction of the environment. Drovers followed where the Aborigines went knowing they would find water for their stock. In the years that followed, summer saw the trek each year up to the Leases where stockmen spent time tending the herds. A good many were indigenous people and they taught the settlers how to burn sections prior to descending the mountains before the first snows. Then the Greenies pushed for a halt to all this. The undergrowth is thick and primed to burn and at times has done so.
Drovers all over NSW used to cook on open fires and would gather dead wood for camp fires and also carry some into areas of no trees. Now regulation after regulation. The camp fires are frowned upon as the timber housed insects for wild animals. Remember the drover’s routes followed where the original race travelled. They used fire wood. Some areas they burned. The environment was in total balance.
Tiny villages too in the bush are prohibited from picking up fallen timber to heat their homes and the villages also followed where the koori went. So dead wood lines many roads and stock routes. We make some stupid political decisions and it is high time we started listening to elderly First Nations folk and old timers who learned from them how to use the land wisely.
Irrigation and diverting water has its own issues too. The old fire trails should be redone where possible and heaven forbid, let trail riders on horses help keep them open and encourage them to destroy weeds on the track.
The Greens might be one contributing factor to lack of controlled burning, but I’m pretty sure the main factor is the drought, which has limited our opportunities to burn. And the drought is caused by …. climate change? I’m not sure. I am fairly certain that we’ve doomed future generations to a lifetime of summers like this one, because of our selfish inaction on climate change.
The main article is just stupid. Jones starts out by saying the former fire chiefs aren’t qualified to talk about climate change, then presents his opinions on climate change as fact. Hypocrisy much?
Then the one that really bugs me – that old chestnut about how Australia only produces 1.3% of global emissions. It’s not about the emissions that we produce, it’s about the impact we have on global politics. Australia is one of the three countries which blocked progress at the most recent climate change summit, along with the US and Brazil. Disgraceful. How about I use an analogy – Australia has 7 million acres of bushland to protect and I can only protect 0.00000000000000013% of them by joining the RFS, so there’d be no point to me doing that so I’ll just sit at home and turn the telly on. No, that’d be unaustralian….or would it?
Clearly the Drought and heatwaves through winter prevented burning. You can’t burn off when the fire could get out of control.
The shift in seasons and increased intensity of natural disasters made these fires what they are. This is text book climate change and Alan is pointing the finger at everyone but himself.
He and others like him around the world actively campaigned to prevent action on climate change and this is the result.
There’s blood on his hands. Again.
This article is just more of his anti science propaganda.
Take it down.
Amy
Many farmers and firefighters with ‘bush skills’ say that dry conditions actually broaden the burning window of opportunity because you can burn throughout winter.
Thanks for your comment, we all need to keep an open mind on these issues.
Tom
Many farmers and firefighters with ‘bush skills’ say that dry conditions actually broaden the burning window of opportunity because you can burn throughout winter.
Ive been saying this for years and this goes for compamies and governments alike, Quote” yes you may be a govenor or be the boss but you have people around you that know and understand more about the issues than you do so listen to them, you will find they will be more willing and loyal as a result and things will be done/managed in an efficiant and effective way” if a government regardless of where in the world they are did this they would be voted in and remain in, I cant understand why they have to be so bad at matters.
Also, if asked a question then give a straight answer, why tell us the winner of the derby in 1996 when the question was totally different?
Find me a government that is straight and listens to good honest pratical people and tells it how it is and they have my vote.
The leading experts in the risk management of bushfires in Australia put the current situation down to a lack of funding. Management has become more difficult due to increased settlement adding complexity to planned burning and “shrinking safe weather windows”. (These experts are at Wollongong and Tasmania universities.)
They say there is more pre-burning than ever but it is not enough and far more money needs to be put into management.
Alan Jones writes well but he does need to say who the sources of his information are specifically so his facts can be checked. Then I’d be happy to agree with him, since it would be great if the solution to these fires was as simple as stopping greens from stopping hazard reduction. Problem solved.
Alan Jones is not a reliable witness.
Climate change has been studied for decades, around the world, and there is a massive body of observation and measurement which supports the fairly obvious idea that human behaviour can have (and has had) an affect on global climate. Human civilisation has been functioning for around 10,000 years, the Holocene era, a mere blip in geological time, and to some extent human behaviour has (probably) had en effect on climate: through cropping, herding animals, clearing forests, water management. However, in the past two centuries we have lost control of the process, by pumping massive amounts of “greenhouse” gases into the atmosphere. The result of this is climate change: in fact, global warming. Again, there is a massive amount of observation and measurement which supports this. Of course, no fire can happen without fuel, but (despite some of your correspondents) fuel management is not the panacea which will cure the bushfire problem. Fuel management is just one of the activities which we need to undertake, less important in fact than climate management (though they all go together). It is also important to recognise that this is not a political issue, except among some few inhabitants of Australia and the USA, who see management as some sort of plot. (Note that the UK Conservatives, who are conservative, have no problem with emission control policies. They understand the science.) The take-home message is that climate change is real, is happening, and seems to be speeding up, so that we have to act soon if we are to avoid further disaster.
So disappointing to see article by Alan Jones. So full of misinformation. Do the readers on this website know that “the Greens’ actually have a policy on bushfire management that you can look up on the web? ‘The Greens’ acknowledge the need for hazard reduction and that in the future more hazard reduction will be required because of climate change. When has the LNP ever blamed climate change for these fires? Up until November 21 I hadn’t even heard the acknowledgement of the existence of climate change by a member of the LNP. Why wouldn’t 23 former fire and emergency leaders be considered experts in this area? I suppose Alan Jones considers himself one. The only thing he is expert at is being a sensationalist, an expert at spreading misinformation and making himself and his cronies rich. I could go on refuting ‘the facts’ in this article but it would be very lengthy. Sooooo disappointing to see an article like this on this website under the guise of supporting firefighters. So sad when you help to spread such misinformation that does not help the current situation. So sad and disappointing!
“… blaming climate change for a bush fire crisis” is a misleading headline that Alan Jones uses to try to discredit climate change science, and give his climate denial movement more credibility. An old tactic to divert attention away from an incredibly strong body of evidence; by twisting the opposing argument to sound ludicrous. Nobody says climate change has caused this crisis … of course not. There have been plenty of bush fires in our past and there will continue to be plenty more in our future. Will they get more intense and run for longer? …. yes probably, due to an accelerated rising average temperature from human activities since the industrial revolution, which will make our climate drier and hotter progressively over time.
ABC had Anthony Albanese on a little while ago talking about how the fires will impact bushwalkers, local economy etc in fire affected areas – particularly the Blue Mountains..
I’m not surprised that he has not (nor any other politican or news service for that matter) mentioned how the Greens movement has contributed to the current disaster through the lock up the lands movement and prohibition of seasonal cool burn offs to reduce fuel build-up – particularly bordering habitable areas.
I know my opinion will infuriate some who want to hug trees and cuddle Koalas and guess what I’m with you – no animal, plant or insect should ever suffer. But that’s the issue – we have caused this suffering through our own incompetence and ignorance; it is NOT solely as a result of global warming!
I’m hoping that you will understand my rant knowing what I know and what my experience has been as a daughter of proud farmers who have spent thousands of dollars and hours on the back of our own farm supplied fire fighting truck doing seasonal cool burns, patrolling fire lines, fighting atrocious and fast moving grass fires and sadly experiencing the loss of my brother in the ’82 fire at Minhamite. I’ve never been this open about my opinion before; but I’m riled up sufficiently to say something now.
There is not one sole reason why we are where we are – it is a combination of a range of reasons – the swiss cheese lining up perfectly to allow our own version of Armageddon to occur each Summer; and until this is addressed – be prepared for Australia to keep burning this way and worse until we understand (like our Indigenous did; how to manage the land and fire as friend not foe)
1. The Greens – I absolutely hold the Greens responsible for the state of our State and National reserves – I have seen this since a young girl when they padlocked the Grampians in the 80’s making it dangerous for my father and brothers as they rushed to save the bush and surrounding communities. And if you want to doubt me – just take a drive through the apocalyptic landscape of a hot burn where everything is obliterated and nothing regenerates for years. In contrast a cool burn has green shoots and animals returning – foraging for a freshly cooked meal in days afterwards… There is nothing as magical as a valley of Black Boys flowering after a burn in the Grampians – magical stuff…
2. Firefighters Union – deliberately pushing out CFA volunteers just to obtain complete control over Australia’s largest peacetime volunteer organisation over the last 20+ years and generate more jobs / revenue for themselves. My family’s proud and sacrificial 100+ year contribution to the CFA is a diminishing memory as the massive experience of brigades elders vanish and paperwork, minimum firefighter standards and food hygiene standards drive so many away. This breaks my heart.
3. Building Regs – Vic Building Authority through relaxed regs and Councils seeking increased rateable remuneration and status as offering fringe dwellers the perfect lifestyle have allowed people to build in blatantly dangerous locations without any obligation for them to understand the risks associated with bushfire. We delivered shed kits to Strathewan after Black Saturday – why in God’s mercy were those permits originally allowed – one road in / out – rickety timber bridges – narrow roads – a lack of connection with the outside world once your one solitary mobile tower is knocked out. No wonder we lost so many souls ?
Even Blind Freddy can see why we are where we are right now! When the questions begin about these latest fires – who is going to have the guts politically to stand up and call this out? I fear that it at best will be a whimper that will be snuffed by the fear of our Govt losing the marginal support it holds in Parliament as it has jumped into bed with the independents and Greens and they hold the balance of power instead.
Australia don’t blame Morrison – you voted for this!
This is not a post meant to generate sympathy for my own experience – this is a call to arms that all of Australia needs to wake the hell up and do something. We have already lost so many and so much in this fire season and we are less than half way through. What are you prepared to do to agitate for a real conversation that will bring about positive change?
A lot of to’ing and fro’ing in this series of comments.
A lot of finger pointing but very few thoughts on what should be the procedure from here on to minimise the fuel load. No doubt if the floor level rubbish was removed at the right time there would be less chance of higher temperature fire setting fire to the green canopy because there would be less oil and gas being exprelled by trees.
So far nobody has addressed the radio communications failures brought about by reliance on radio repeaters set on hilltops amongst the very stuff burning. Where is the fall-back to point-to-point simplex radio. Where is the much vaunted radio based NBN and moble comms in Mallacoota – oh, thats right, the cells are parked in the burning bush. Where is the value for an electric vehicle when the power lines have gone down – oh, thats right, use a diesel gen-set. Where are the senior green’s pollies in all this – not a peep out of the lot of them. Head down and arse up – a continuing posture to be maintained
OH, and by the way, CO2 doesn’t burn, but apart from that, how much has been released by the bushfires?
I was on a dairy farm at the head of the Nambucca River in the 50s and 60s there were about 6 small rivers and creeks that ran into to Nambucca each of these was in a gulley some large and some small. The creek we were on had mountains both side and at the head he done to the gully, at that time the forestry service would go through and mark trees in an area they wanted logged, due to this there were trails all along the ridges. In winter if there was enough to burn someone would light a fire, when we would see smoke over a ridge we would get our rakes and go up to where the forest started and light along the edge, there were about 8 farms in this gully and all would do the same. The fire would smolder through the bush until it went out at one of the forestry roads making a barrier between the forest that went for miles and the edge of the forest, no permission was needed for this it was just the done thing, never saw a wild fire in this time, this would happen all over the north coast. Logs would be taken at random whereas now they clear fell the whole area allowing the dirt to wash down into the creeks and rivers when heavy rain comes, also they are not going through the forest keeping the roads open when selecting a area were certain logs would be taken from, I heard that the old way done too much damage to the forest and that by using the new method they would not have to go back into the forest for 20 or 30 years causing less damage. I walked through the forest that had been logged under the old method for many years and unless you saw a stump you would not know that that man had been there unless it had been recently logged. This was in country that steep once you went off the ridges you couldn’t ride a horse when looking for cattle which in those times wandered through the forest feeding on the kangaroo grass that came back green after the cool burn in the winter. The farms on this creek are now all gone and the forestry who now owns the land has just let the rubbish grow.
George
”The ABC were at it again last week, fawning over 23 former fire and emergency leaders who commented, outside their area of expertise, about an alleged relationship between bushfires and climate change.
It is worth asking how the non-expert views of such people are even newsworthy.“
…hang on. So Alan Jones is an expert in bushfire and climate control now, then, is he?
Years ago I visited the Yosemite in USA and took a train ride through a mighty Sequoia forest which was being revitalize by back burning and clearing. These giant trees were dying and many animals leaving the area due to high thick undergrowth. The American Indians, like our first Australians knew how to look after their country. It has taken the white man only a few hundred years to distroy what they all knew.
My family came here 90 years ago, I’m a first generation Aussie and love this country. It has always been the wide brown land known for droughts, fires and floods. It will always be that. We need to get back to what works.
I spend 20 years in Nana Glen just out of Coffs Harbour and trained racehorses in the beautiful forests in that area. Recently seen on TV because Russel Crowe’s property was affected as were many others.
In the time I was there, a few fires started. One on my own property. They were made easier to fight because of well maintained fire trails and winter hazard reduction.
Let’s get back to what works and spend the money where it needs it. From what I’ve read in this artical, one thing is obvious, most think the same. Let’s get our true Aussie Spirit going and unite to make it happen, fire trails reopened for people to use and enjoy, hazard reduction through winter. ACTION!
OUR FIREFIGHTERS ARE HEROS!!!
PAY THEM AND APPRECIATE THEIR HUGE EFFORTS. THE EMPLOYERS WHO SUPPORT THEM IN FINANCIALLY HARD TIMES AND FAMILIES AT HOME ARE HEROS TOO. WE ALL LOVE YOU.
Finally someone had the guts to say the truth. My husband and I were in a volunteer fire department. In 1991 forestry representative warned us it was going to get really bad as the greenies convinced powers to be that there be no more controlled burns and that would create lots of fuel for fires. If the beetle kill could have been logged when it was discovered in a park we would not be in such a dire state but it again was not allowed. How dare anyone log in a park so now it is nice and brown and great fuel for fires. It is amazing how people plant trees close to homes and wonder why it burnt. Unfortunately the damage is done and we will pay for it dearly. I have great respect for our forestry firefighters . Fires are dangerous and they never know how they will react.
So it’s now the 4th of January 2020 and large swathes of Australia are burning. Does Alan Jones still think we should stop listening to the fire chiefs?
Unless the whole world joins the fight against climate change, the benefit that Australia can make is ZERO !!!!
I am a 66 year old semi retired farmer who has had one address for 66 years 8 months 15 days.
We had a very effective Rural Fire Brigade based in our small rural town made up of mostly local farmers who worked together very well until some people that could have worked but didn’t want to anymore moved to our small town and became involved with the Rural Fire Brigade and brought bureaucracy into the situation and totally destroyed the harmony that we had for a very very long time.
Our brigade became totally dismantled, RFS took our firetruck away that local fund raising had greatly contributed too and left us with a pissant trailer mounted pumping unit.
You are a dangerous lunatic Alan Jones
What is it going to take for the masses to realise how little you know what you are talking about.
The country burns, and the experts on the matter; RFS members, chiefs, and scientists have told you the course.
but you think you as a jumped up journalist know better than they? Hubris is a word you should learn
Since the 2009 bushfires at least in Victoria there were state wide planning policy changes to allow significantly more management of vegetation on private property. State forests and national parks are managed by the state or federal government in power or their authorities. The Greens had nothing to do with it. Local governments do not manage state or national parks. This argument that “greenies” stopped vegetation management to such an extent as to create these horrendous fires is a lie and a distraction. It is a desperate attempt by those who deny the climate science to rationalise the current horrendous state of affairs we are in because of the impacts of climate change. It must be a difficult reality to accept for some – especially their own role in voting for governments that have ineffective policy in addressing climate change – mitigation and management of impacts. Now we all suffer.
Whoever wrote this article obviously has no scientific credibility.
While you can’t claim climate change directly caused the fires- or any large weather event, there is much scientific evidence (i.e the IPCC report- a collaborative work by world scientists) to say these events will increase due to temperature rises. The temperatures seen in Australia this year are some of the highest on record and the last decade saw new global highs being reached.
Whether or not people believe in climate change- why not take precautions and make positive changes to a society rather than dismiss scientific evidence like this article does well.
A very misleading article – and written my Alan Jones himself – cause you know he has all the facts. He’s just an opinionated mate with pen. People are too busy looking at it from one side. The problem we have is the left blame the right and the right blame the left. We need to get the research. Identify the patterns and come up with strategies for mitigation and prevention. And I’m sorry to those that don’t what to listen, but it’s going to be a little from column a and a little from column b.
Wow, so much blame for the Greenies. I don’t see them in power anywhere so I find it difficult to understand why they are being blamed. I do see the LNP in power in a whole lot of places. So, if you are voting for them then obviously their policies are not doing anyone any favours. Maybe it is time to stop trotting out the tired old blame game- “it is all the Greenies fault” and actually start looking at what is happening.
No, these fires are not just because of climate change. Yes, there are cyclical climate changes that contributed to this situation. However, climate change has aggravated an already bad situation. Have none of you noticed that we keep breaking heat records, drought records, flood records etc? These are all indicators of the more extreme events that occur because of climate change. Add to that, years of water mismanagement, courtesy of the current Government, not the Greenies, and other poor funding choices. and we have a crisis. Those few ill-informed Greenies who don’t understand hazard reduction burns and so try to stop them, they are a very minor problem in a very much larger issue and they really are not the cause of this situation. But long-term poor management and poor funding that has nothing to do with the Greenies is.
I would like to know what the Greens have done to support the fire Fighters also other Parties I never liked Tony Abbot but at least he goes to help without trying to advertise the fact.
Alan, you pour ridicule on 23 former fire and emergency leaders as being “non-expert”, from your shock-jock comfy position in Sydney. You mock the idea of this fire season being anything too bad, by trotting out a bunch of stats of other fires going back 80 years.
One small problem. You wrote this in November, and the fires have now destroyed more hectares than all your previous stats put together. With no signs of finishing soon.
You argue about “deadliest”, which I’m sure will be of comfort to those who have had family die in these fires. When it takes the combined resources of the defence force to prevent evacuate thousands via sea – and it may still yet become the deadliest fire season despite that – you’d think it might be time for you to front and say “You know what, maybe my dismissing and mocking of the concerns of all these people at the front lines was wrong.”
Or do you need to keep digging back 15 years to 2005(!!) to blame Bob Carr for everything, just to avoid any criticism of the current government? A government, you seem to be arguing, has helplessly been under the thrall of the Green Party and held to ransom by their massive political power?
Perhaps you should read the related article that appears above, just after yours ends:
“A fierce feud has ignited between NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and the Public Service Association following revelations the number of rangers, who perform hazard reduction burns, has been cut by a third since the Coalition came to power in 2011.”
(See above: “Danger of cutbacks to rangers burns NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro”)
But I don’t expect you to do any of that. You have your specific barrows to push, and doing so resolutely in the face of the facts must be exhausting.
Go back to your mansion, have a little lie down and a nice chardonnay, and get your strength back for your next “It’s all Labour’s/The Greens/non-expert ex-fire chiefs fault for this completely normal, done-it-all-before fire that’s not really that deadly or destructive and certainly isn’t related at all to that climate change thing which doesn’t exist.”
I have a couple of questions for the Twiterati.
. Has a journo asked Bob Carr recentlyto apologise for his appalling misstep on Forest fire mitigation?
. Does any know how many of the “independent” climate alarmist scientist receive public funding? I saw somewhere that there are LOTS??
I also believe there is a fair number of scientists who have researched climate history to establish that Mother Nature rather than CO2 has a big influence on the climate and has done for millenia!
Who do we believe???
I am amazed that a seemingly reputable organisation would quote verbatim the drivel that Alan Jones exposes.
All the lies and truth twisting he employs do not alter the facts about climate change.
The science is very well understood and is supported by multiple lines of investigation.
No one disputes the various ways in which the fires have started. But when you see previously, recently, burned areas being burnt again, rainforest burning and the massive length in time and kilometres of the fire fronts surely volunterfirefighters.org can’t be that idiotic to think that Jones’ drivel has any value.
Very True! The Greens and other policy makers , pro- green government officials are to be blamed with the massive Bush Fire! And now they are very silent blaming it to Climate change! Yes the temperature has soarly increased yet the fuel left in the environment if not properly and sustainably managed will be a good component of causing Fire! Middle East countries have heat waves but there are no fires because there is is no fuel component to create combustion. If Australia does not do something and just “let nature take its course” allow drought and leave the dried trees , and dead grass alone be burnt then Australia will become a barren land. Selective burning of these fuel component should be done like the aborigines practice long before. Alternatively, trees in the forest should have intercropping , plant non fire volatile trees and other vegetation such as cactus and succulent or other buffer materials to stop spreading the fire. True, we have to keep the native plants but we also have to think of a sustainable forest management for the total well being of the animals , the future of humanity and even preserve nature. It’s high time to be united, do brainstorming and act now!
Try as I can I found nothing in this article to argue over. I am 75 and have been a vollie in WA for 45 years, yet in that time I have seen nothing like the devastation they have “over east” right now. One possible reason is that our State Government does allow hazard reduction burns and big bush fires quickly run out of puff when they reach low fuel areas. Let’s keep this message alive until one politician learns sense.
You’re so right! The government is at fault and I don’t get why people can’t see this! It’s not all climate change! We need to have investigation on why the liberals decided to axe RFS budget when coming up to what they warned as the worst fire season!! LOCK THEM UP!! They should be held responsible for their actions!!
I live in London,UK
I found this altogether very interesting.I have Facebook friends in Sydney and Melbourne and also cousins in New South Wales,who live and farm on a smallholding way back in the outback North of Victoria .I have been fairly convinced that the main problem had to be climate change with the extremely high and rising temperatures combined with the Australian government’s policies which have been reiterated here,I was surprised to note the audacity of your Prime Minister holidaying with his family in Hawii at the general outset of this dreadful outbreak of dramatic fire and disaster in the country he is supposed to be caring for and looking after which I felt was a wholly wrong decision.
AUS has 1 Green MP in the House and 9 in the senate making up 5 percent of all government, yet somehow the fires are the Greenies fault? Thanks for the larf!
“The government (and how many problems that we face today are created by government?) put locked gates on these national parks and planted big rocks at the entry to the fire trails.”
If we were to closely examine the details of Agenda 21, you would realise that the government is being quite successful at implementing the ‘rewilding’ of the Australian interior.
Haven’t heard of them? Then perhaps you should look them up and work out that the government isn’t doing what we want it to do – it’s carrying out the orders of its UN masters.
Clem, what about local government influence?
Alan Jones is not an authority on bush fires. Please do not take what he says as a truth.
The man has never fought a fire in his life.
Keep on this track, change nothing. You’re gonna burn in hell, and all the aboriginal you have massacred we’ll get their revenge.
Well said. I wish we had more people like him.
Please read: “The Way home or face The Fire”.
http://jahtruth.net/wayad.htm
Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the Day cometh, that shall burn like an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the “I AM” Lord of hosts, that it shall leave of them neither root nor branch (nothing).
It’s interesting how non technical folk will only argue against evidence based science when billionaires stand to lose money.
I’m sorry, if you think the Greens have any control over the decisions being made – you are delusional. They are not in power. The decisions are made by Parks and Wildlife, RFS, and other fire management authorities. Not the Greens. They have zero influence.
It seems that people are more interested in scapegoating and conspiracy theories than confronting the reality of climate change. Time to grow up people. For your kid’s sake, turn off Alan Jones and wake up to yourself.
I’m sure we all need to hear from Allan I believe the opera house is a billboard because I have a stake in the advertisment for the race going up on it Jones, a man who has probably sold his opinion to the highest bidder in the past a man who’s key demographic is shrinking fast a man who arguably SHOULD have retired five to ten years ago because the facts are clear the last time the “evil greens” had anything to do with policies and decision making was under the last minority labor lead government btw any liberal national government is automatically a minority government period. Said liberal national government has had nine years to change any “green” policies that affect Australia negatively if they haven’t it just goes to show how truly ineffective liberal national government leadership is.
Hi, guys!
My name is Milena and I work at TV Bandeirantes, here in Brazil. I am contacting you as I am producing a story about the fires in Australia, but if they have impacted the farmer’s activity. I wonder if you suffered from this, and if you could record a video for me showing what happened. It needs to be horizontal and preferably on your farm. Help me please.
Thank you VFFA, now I know the source of the conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation being spread by the likes of Alan Jones. For an organisation supposedly representing volunteer rural firefighters you are either telling society what’s wrong with your organisation and/or conflating misinformation about rural and professional firefighters. There are just too many wrong statements in your article especially so called evidence against contemporary bush-fire mitigation and management and current and retired Fire Commissioners for me to mull over them herein. In addition, your rabid critique of politicians as being a source of ridiculous policies leads directly to those reactionary clowns of Liberal/National ilk who are sprouting the same misinformation and conspiracy theories as your article. All of the absolute nonsense you and your political mates are propagating brings to mind the Maxim which states: ‘IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE CURE, THEN YOUR PART OF THE PROBLEM.’
Milena, a farmer may answer the call for a video. In the meantime, we will be publishing similar material that you are free to use.
Regards
Mick Holton
With regard to the recent fires and subsequent flooding which has now extinguished all but a few fires, I would like to say something. The Greens did not vote themselves into political power. For too long Australia has been divided by hung parliaments at both a Federal and State level and unfortunately as a result, self righteous minority groups suddenly become politically empowered. By shining the spotlight on what happens when minority groups gain political power (yes I’m referring to the Greens as a prime example) we have no one to blame other than ourselves. If this nation could step back for one moment and allow a Liberal or Labour Government to actually govern for the people, tragedies such as this could perhaps could be avoided or minimized. When minority groups refuse to pass important legislation unless they receive political reward, we as a nation are being held to political ransom and will continue to suffer at their dirty hands. Minority groups now dictate to the majority which in my view is undemocratic and when you see the next fire or floods catastrophe, don’t blame it all on climate change. The world created climate change (not Australians) so we need to live with it and do our best not to make it worse. Minority groups thrive on misery but there is plenty we can do to lessen the future impact of fires and flood. This wasn’t the first fire and it won’t be the last so the point is, what did we learn? More power to minority groups? Word of warning voters, do so at Australia’s peril.
If you wasted your precious State or Federal Govt Election vote on a minority party because you felt neither major major party were good enough, then you’re wasted minority party vote contributed to what we see today.
Indigenous Australians have cared for this land for over 60,000 years, the oldest culture in the world. As white Australians we have lived on this land for a little over just 200 years. You would think we white Australians could actually learn something from the natural custodians right? Well it seems not !! We should be asking our Aboriginal people for their help and advice.
How many know the famous Poem written by Dorothea Mackellar in 1908 called” I love a Sunburnt Country”? Although she was raised in a professional urban family, Mackellar’s poetry is usually regarded as quintessential bush poetry, inspired by her experience on her brothers’ farms near Gunnedah, in the north-west of NSW. Part of the poem read;
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
What does it mean? It tells us of her love of Australia and our land being one of “drought and flooding rain” That’s right even in 1908 when Australia was unaffected by climate change, it was still a land of drought and flood. Australia is different to other lands. It’s unique in its people, its fauna, it’s flora and weather so this land needs to be managed differently and cared for by those who understand it. Clearly the white folk of this land don’t have a clue. It’s climate change, it’s the politicians fault. Are we really that stupid?
The point is, the weather we experience, the drought, the floods, it’s not unusual its been that way long for untold centuries and long before climate change. That’s the way it is here in Australia and the sooner we come to terms with it the better. It would seem as a very young 200 year old so called educated nation, we don’t understand how to manage this land. Hat in hand, I hereby ask the natural custodians of this great land to help us. What do we need to do?
For the life of me, I don’t understand in a land of drought, why we don’t harness the monsoon rains and put that water to good use for the entire nation. We could not just feed ourselves but could feed the world and as we have in the snowy mountains, use that water to generate more non polluting hydro electric power. That’s what I call infrastructure. We could produce the world’s best food, have a sustained and thriving farming industry, create jobs and regional towns and cities, add new industries nationwide and protect our environment and resources. It would be a win win situation but in order to do that, voters need to support the major political powers and insist on it. If we don’t and allow minority groups to call the shots, God help us. Do something people and make you’re next vote count.
A great piece of thought, lots of little pictures don’t necessarily add up to one big picture.
The modern look over there approach to politics has rendered people conditioned to bad decisions and poor social design.
We have been removed from our land and lost touch with the very beating heart of life, the Bush.
I come from a village called Nerrigundah, we lost 20 of the 25 homes when 3 fires surrounded and engulfed us, I am in the RFS and was 1 of the group in the Nerrigundah fire shed when it was overun for 25 minutes by a front that moved like liquid and put things on the ground white hot before your eyes.
You can’t imagine how you have possibly survived temperatures that were making the air itself burst into flames above you, The fight here was never going to be fair, 30 years of mismanagement created fuel loads exceeding 20t hectare, the inevitable drought cycle dried it out like hay even in the gullies, the usual dry cell storm ignited it, just as had been known since time itself and burnt from west to east destroying everything as far as you can see.
Climate change isnt the problem, blatant mismanagement and stupidity is. Come see the heartbreak that is complete habitat destruction, tell me a cycle that was managed for generations has changed.
We need the traditional land managers to take us back to our land, because no matter what party they have all failed on so many levels all of which took us from our bush.